no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here

nothing valued is here adult. american. golem. ​þei/þem caribeaux.redbubble.com

[notaplaceofhonour]

Hi, call me Cari 💙

Non-binary, disabled, queer Jew—putting the (((Them))) in “they/them”

I write sci-fi fantasy, make art, and talk about Jewish issues and things I enjoy

My art can be purchased from RedBubble or viewed in my #my art tag

Updates for my current fantasy WIP can be found on my side blog @the-perpetual-minutes (coming soon I promise)

Rules/Boundaries:

Treat me with respect.

Don’t be a dick.

Don’t be a bigot.

Do the work of reading the books on my Antisemitism Required Reading list before expecting me to engage with any disagreements you may have with me on what is/isn’t antisemitic.

Bad takes go in the dunk (!) mature content tank.

I report violent antisemitism to the relevant authorities.

Feel free to send asks/messages, but don’t be offended if I don’t respond. I’m just not good with follow up 😅

Donations:

I’m disabled & poor. If you want to help me make ends meet or just support what I do, please consider donating to my cashapp or venmo:

[hatikvah-shalom]

Someone just came up to me while I was reading Ilan Pappé and asked if the book was any good. I said no, his methodology is horrible. He tried to tell me about how closely he’d been following the Middle East “in the past two months” and how scared he was that Israel was going to use a nuclear bomb. Don’t think he was expecting to get a full history lecture and curriculum in response, but seriously? You come to me on the eve of my Shabbat with your nonsense??

[valtsv]

<a feeling you can't translate>

"Absolute Terror Field" - Evangelion Wiki // End of Evangelion (1997, dir. Hideaki Anno) // Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir // Project Hail Mary (2026, dir. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller) // Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996, dir. Hideaki Anno) Episode 4: "Hedgehog's Dilemma" // "気持ち悪い" - Wiktionary // "Kimochi Warui" - evamonkey.com

[importantcatpics]

[notaplaceofhonour]

The Cat Who Committed Murder

[teashoesandhair]

I'm in a little local cafe and the women behind the counter started griping to each other, "Oh Christ, Stephen's back again," "It's him, is it? I thought he'd stopped coming," "It's definitely him, look, it's bloody Stephen on a Thursday morning," "Do you want me to get rid of him or are you going to do it?" and so I was peering outside, trying to spot this nightmare customer, this pestilence of a person, this pox upon the cafe trade, and then one of the women from behind the counter ran outside, clapping two trays together loudly and yelling "GET OUT OF IT, STEPHEN!" and it turns out that Stephen is an absolutely gigantic fuck-off seagull who hangs around outside, menacing people for crumbs

[pineappical]

thinking about statues of Grace being built all around Erid years after his passing so he can continue to watch over Eridians as they sleep

[cabinette]

[notaplaceofhonour]

love the use of lighting and color in Spider-Noir. truly the best of both worlds with the black-and-white and true color

[notaplaceofhonour]

I was rewatching Bee and Puppycat last night (it’s my comfort show) and realized Arin Hanson is in it

[zonatcannibalism]

The misconception that zionist ideas only existed and have been a part of judaism since the zionist political movement has formed is so fucking harmful actually

[moran-with-a-g]

"Next year in Jerusalem"

[ofekma]

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept     when we remembered Zion.  There on the poplars     we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs,     our tormentors demanded songs of joy;     they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How can we sing the songs of the Lord     while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem,     may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth     if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem     my highest joy.

- about 582 BCE

The last part about Jerusalem has been recited in Jewish weddings, the earliest document example of that is from around the third century and has lasted till this day.

My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west-- How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains? A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain -- Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.

Was written during the middle ages

There are a lot more examples, as well as examples of Jewish people trying to re-settle in Israel throughout history, as well as ancient prayers that have lasted till today but I don't have time to find all those translated to English now

[adventuresofanotsoteenagewitch]

Couldn't leave these tags in the notes. They're brilliant and true. Credit to @ofekma.

[dragoncatkhfan]

Okay stepping out of my lane for a second

Nationality became a thing in the very late 1600s.

Zionism as a movement proper started in the very early 1900s.

And while I can’t find any sources for this (for some strange reason) I wouldn’t be surprised if it took some influence from the on and off again “Back to Africa” movement. Which argued that all black people should go back to Africa.

The issue with that movement is; Black Americans aren’t culturally African. They’re culturally American. Because that’s where they were born and raised. They’re a subsection of American, but still American.

And it’s the same for Jewish people.

I get it, it’s displaced frustration from the place you belong not wanting you and actively harming you. That’s completely understandable. And when you’re told over and over again “well actually this is your land, not this place that clearly hates you” you start to believe it come hell or high water.

But is it really your land? When you haven’t been there for so long. When you haven’t grown and changed with the culture that continued to exist there since you left? Not all the Jews from back then left with the diaspora. And their descents are culturally Arab even if they stayed religiously Jewish and didn’t convert to Islam.

Meanwhile, Your culture left with you. It changed as you moved to other places. And those changes are disconnected from the cultural changes that happened in Israel overtime. To put it another way, your home left with you.

Like I said, displaced frustration, I get that. But, I think the answer is to tell the assholes giving you shit for, ex. being American, is to tell them they’re full of shit. You belong in the USA just as much as their white asses do.

[zonatcannibalism]

You are in fact out of youre lane.

two things.

1:

Revolutions of 1848 - Wikipedia

Youre welcome to go ahead and make any connection youd like for yourself, but zionism as a national movement did not in fact start 300 years after nationality became a thing. There is a direct documented tie between the rise of other european national monuments and the conception of zionism, also following along the last stages of jewish emancipation and the rise of haskala, both movements which lead jewish thinkers to combine current political movements with long lasting jewish ideas. The idea that a european jewish movement is more easily comparable to an american movement then other jewish movements or other european movements is ridiculous.

2: this post is explicitly not about the political aspect of the zionist movement, but about the cultural and religious roots of it. the concept of returning to Israel as our homeland has had in judaism for centuries before zionism became a political movement. You cannot understand zionism as a modern political movement without understanding that the great grandparents of the jews that started it have been expressing their desire to go back to Israel and jerusalem at least 3 times a day, in every prayer. Probably more, also after every time they ate. And in every holiday. And so did their parents. And so did their parents. Repeatedly. For centuries. You are making some solid points, which i disagree with, but i dont want to get into that because the conversation in this post isnt meant to discuss if zionism is wrong or right but explain why is was created in the first place. You know how meaningful israel is to jewish religion and culture? You know what other movements were going on at the time in europe? You know what movements eueopean judaism was going through before zionism? Good, now you can start understating zionism. And then you can start understating antizionism. I wrote this post specifically about why so many jews are zionists, and about the importance of letting jews define what zionism is using their own history instead of just barging in and deciding that actually, its identical to this non jewish movement because that fits your narrative. Especially in a age where "antizionism" is rampant among people who have never actually spoken to a jew in their life.

Also. There was in fact a extreamly prominent jewish movement parallel to zionism that supported "telling the assholes giving you shit that theyre full of shit". It was called bundism. do you know how many bundists are left? Do you know why? Do you want to?

[notaplaceofhonour]

The idea that Zionism is wholly a modern phenomenon starting in the 19th Century because that’s when it was given a name and was finally able to organize in an effective way is just weird to me, because people tend to have an understanding that just because they only named something at a certain point doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist before that (in fact, it kind of implies it had to have existed before that, in order for people to even bother naming it).

Taking being queer, for instance; just because you don’t understand yourself as gay/trans/etc until your 20s or even later doesn’t mean you weren’t that beforehand; and to use your life before that label to paint you finally being able to live into your sexuality or gender presentation as less valid would be understood by most queer people as ridiculous, and even bigoted.

Jews have understood the Jewish people as an Am for as long as we have existed as a people. Yes, this is technically distinct from modern concepts of religion, ethnicity, and nationhood, but these concepts are language that gets closest to communicating aspects of Judaism/the Jewish people outside of Hebrew and the context of the Ancient Near East. Jews understanding Am Yisrael through the lens of modern nationalism is no more strange or aberrant than us understanding Am Yisrael through the lens of religion or ethnicity. It just happens to be the political structure of most countries in the modern day.

As for the entire argument that culture being different has any bearing on whether Jews “should” have returned to Israel or not, the same argument applies equally a) to Jews moving into countries in the diaspora to begin with, and b) to any course of action that could be taken now, in every direction: in regards to having to pull apart the culture that exists in Israel now, in regards to the culture of Jews in Israel vs that of Jews in other countries, in regards to the culture of Palestinians in Gaza & the West Bank vs that of Arabs living in Israel. So even if it weren’t an extremely problematic and bizarre way of looking at human culture and migration, it’s a moot and meaningless point, with no practical bearing on reality.

The “Back to Africa” comparison is also an ill-fitting one. A huge notable difference between Jewish return and Back to Africa is even extremely different Jewish cultures can still trace fairly unbroken continuity back to a single shared culture, while that is often not true—by no fault of their own—of Black people in the African diaspora. Their descendants were kidnapped from across an entire continent, and often weren’t able to pass down knowledge of their specific culture & ancestry under Slavery. I don’t buy the logic that that has any bearing on whether they “should” or should not be “allowed” to return, and in fact some countries in Africa do have right-of-return initiatives to return members of the African diaspora, like Israel does for Jews.

And even with ideological and cultural tensions between early Zionists and the Old Yishuv, the desire for Jews to return from the diaspora was still shared by Jews living there, and you would be hard pressed to find many of their descendants who would not want the modern State of Israel to have been established (Mizrahi Jews tend to be more hardcore Zionists than Ashkes). So anyone trying to leverage those tensions/differences (especially ones that have long since found their equilibrium) to divide us up and say we should be shackled to whatever country in the diaspora we’re in, or that our cultures have no business coming together, can fuck off.

[mariacallous]

How do Jews do it? How do you stay sane after 2000 years of everyone else in the world hunting you for sport? How can you look at any non-Jews and not see a Nazi just waiting to happen?

I can’t speak for all Jews but I feel like just out of self-preservation and sanity that it’s neither healthy nor helpful to think that way. There’s a difference between wariness and vigilance and being careful and operating out of fear and mistrust fundamentally.

Plus it means the Jew haters win. And that’s something I fundamentally refuse to accept.

[zaprowsdower27]

How do we do it? I can tell you in one word: tradition

*bursts into song*

[curliestofcrowns]

[biglawbear]

Really though, I just keep on being Jewish. I grieve and hold a grudge and then just keep being Jewish.

[mariacallous]

I think about this note/comment in the siddur near the tehilot and mi khamokha

[notaplaceofhonour]

Arin from Game Grumps? in my The Amazing Digital Circus?

[fanchonmoreau]

The thing with Ta-Nahisi Coates saying he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from participating in 10/7 if he had lived in Gaza and Darializa Avila Chevalier attending a celebratory rally right after 10/7 is I think it's a good idea to believe people when they say they want to do violence against Jews. These are not statements and actions that are up for interpretation or debate. They are positioning the slaughter of Jews as justifiable and even morally good.

One of these people is a prominent public intellectual whose work appears in major publications. The other is running for Congress and is endorsed by the mayor of New York.

I don't know what will come of giving these people huge platforms. As a Jew, I don't think it's good. It's as bad for the general population as it is for Jews, but the fact that it's bad for Jews should be enough for morally upstanding people to resist their presence in public life.

Yet here we are.

[avoid-avoidance]

Okay, so riffing on other people's posts about Eridians being ambush predators versus humans being persistence predators: do you think that affects how Rocky and Grace behaved in the "Blip-A detected" scene?

Grace POV: The other ship is patiently, steadily approaching me, clearly not giving up or pretending to ignore me politely, following my every move and not letting up and not letting me get too far away from it... Oh No. I Am Being Hunted. Run Away!!!

Rocky POV: I am making no attempt to conceal myself or make myself sound like something I'm not, and I'm not trying to trick or lure the other ship into coming closer to me of its own volition, and I'm not constructing any kind of physical trap. I am approaching as obviously as I can, at a steady pace. I am being So Fucking Friendly :D

[unsolicited-opinions]

Tomer Persico responds to Irish author Sally Rooney blaming Israel for the rise of fascism and the far right in Europe:

The place Israel occupies in these people's imagination is ridiculous. Israel as the linchpin of colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, ecological devastation - whatever bugs you most, Israel does it worst. Get rid of Israel, save the entire world. It is much bigger than Rooney. Over the last few years, artists, activists, and academics have repeatedly advanced versions of the same claim: Israel as humanity’s arch-nemesis, the disappearance would somehow solve everything. Example: Jason Hickel, visiting professor at the London School of Economics, claimed that “A liberated Palestine means a liberated Middle East. A liberated Middle East means capitalism in the core really faces a crisis.” Because why not. Israel has become a western totem, personifying the cumulative sins of the West’s entire history. In an incredible historical irony, the Jews are now not an oriental, semitic pariah nation nor a degenerate sub-human race, but the purest representatives of the West and the most atrocious white supremacists. As the West’s original essence Israel naturally carries the West’s original sins: colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, etc. Because the Jews are now considered the very essence of the West, Israel's sins are understood as the carrying the collective blame of all westerners. Making Israel pay is thus not only a step on the long arch towards justice, but serves as a purgative practice for all westerners. As the effigy of the West, burning Israel will cleanse the West from its past transgressions. The wish to eradicate Israel is therapeutic, salvific: the sins of all western forefathers, those imperialist, colonialist, slave-holding Europeans, will finally be atoned. Capitalism will fall, the environment will be saved. Redemption is nigh, we just have to eradicate that wart of a nation. As the eternal alter-ego of the West, Jews will always function as its scapegoats. When the West loved itself, we were the alien element supposedly defiling it. Now that the West despises itself, we have become its distilled essence: the figure through whose destruction it fantasizes about purification.

More of Dr. Persico:

He's right about Israel being the scapeGOAT.

[girlactionfigure]

[mariacallous]

[notaplaceofhonour]

“please mr. apple,” i say, holding an empty porridge bowl out, “more widow’s bay, sir?”